Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “translate”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “translate”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Automatic Translator with Google Translate shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 11 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 8706 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #1 2 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #2 3 LocoAI – Auto Translate for Loco Translate 70K+ · 4.9★ (642) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation 50K+ · 4.8★ (1940) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Loco Translate 1M+ · 4.8★ (453) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator 100K+ · 4.7★ (620) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #11 ↓1 4 too low 8 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3003) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too low 9 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too low 11 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #9 ↓3 3 too high 13 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too low 15 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 too high 16 BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375) wp.org #21 ↑2 5 too low 17 AI Translation For TranslatePress 10K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too high 18 Translate and boost SEO – Automatic AI translation – wpLingua 2K+ · 4.9★ (33) wp.org #17 ↓2 1 too high 19 ConveyThis AI Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.4★ (145) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 Automatic Translator with Google Translate 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #12 ↓3 10 too high 23 AI Translate: Affordable Context-Aware Translation 70+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #18 ↓2 5 too high 24 Universally – AI Translation & Multilingual SEO: Translate Your Site into 110+ Languages 30K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 8 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.